Last year, 210 people were shot in Delaware, 43 of them fatally. But where do these guns — and the firearms used in other crimes — come from?
A USA TODAY investigation found that more than 1,300 stores nationwide were tracked by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in 2023 for their sale of guns that were used in crimes.
Five Delaware gun stores made the list: Miller's Gun Center and First State Firearms and Accessories, both near New Castle; StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply in Talleyville; and Shooter's Choice and The Trading Post, both in Dover.
None of the five gun stores responded to requests for comment.
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Each of these stores sold at least 25 guns in the past three years that were traced to a crime in 2023, according to the ATF. Local police agencies said they did not know the exact number of guns involved in crimes that were sold at the five stores.
The difference between the date of a gun's purchase and its use in a crime is known by the agency as "time to crime," with a shorter length typically indicating illegal gun trafficking. Of those guns purchased in Delaware recovered by ATF in 2022, the average time to crime was 6.19 years. That same year, the national time to crime average was 6.34 years.
The majority of the guns used to commit crimes in Delaware were bought in Delaware, ATF data shows.
What the list means
Gun rights lobbyists argued that the release of the names of these stores tracked by the ATF would have a negative impact on the future of gun safety and unfairly place the blame for crimes on sellers, not the actual criminals.
But Traci Murphy, executive director of the Coalition for a Safer Delaware, said it's not about placing blame; instead, she said, this new information should be used to "recognize the part that retailers and gun dealers play in contributing to gun violence."
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While gun stores in Delaware are required to complete background checks before selling weapons, the state does not have a permit-to-purchase gun law, which requires people to complete a firearms training course and get fingerprinted before purchasing a gun.
Murphy and other gun control activists see the implementation of such a law as an important step to reduce gun violence and backed a permit-to-purchase bill in the Delaware Legislature last year. The bill was opposed by gun rights activists like the Delaware State Sportsman Association.
DSSA released a statement in April arguing that a permit-to-purchase gun law would not "address the root causes" of gun-related crimes. The organization declined to comment on the newly obtained data from ATF, stating they did not yet have enough information about how the data was collected or what it meant.
USA TODAY reporter Nick Penzenstadler contributed to this story.
Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more reporting, follow them on X at @h_edelman.
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